This invention relates to an improved apparatus for use in escaping from emergency situations and more specifically, it relates to an improved escape chute through which individuals and emergency personnel may remove injured people from burning or damaged buildings. Fires and other emergency situations require immediate action to safely evacuate the structure and minimize injury to individuals trying to escape from the structure. The problems with respect to such disasters have been more serious in multi-story structures as evacuation is much more difficult than that of a single story structure. Most multi-story homes have only a single stair case exit from the up stairs and those multi-story structures that have elevators are unable to use them in times of disasters.
There are known numerous devices for the emergency evacuation from buildings, sea vessels, and aircraft where emergency evacuation may be required in order to prevent death and prevent or minimize injuries resulting from disasters such as fires, explosions, earth quakes, crashes or other situations making it desirable for individuals to be safely and quickly evacuated.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,099,596, 4,099,595, and 3,348,630 disclose the use of chutes as escape devices. Disclosed are systems wherein the chutes contain discrete local braking elements which are adapted to retard the rate of descent of an individual employing the same. These disclosures also contain reference to a landing pad disposed at the bottom of the chute to facilitate the transition between generally vertically directed descent within the chute and discharge therefrom onto land. Theses local braking elements are a substantial detriment as an individual can have a relative fast rate of descent between the braking elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,031 discloses an escape device having outer and inner chutes, one for providing a heat shield and the other for providing controlled descent. The device is expensive and is not easily utilized and the capability of expanding to meet various sized individuals is limited to the expansion joint provides and does not provide a uniform expansion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,644 discloses a chute system with a lowering device which is extremely complex and does not provide the flexibility that is necessary for a fast and high volume escape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,195 discloses an escape chute having numerous Spandex strips to provide expansion joints for the controlled rate of descent which has similar disadvantages as does U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,031.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,186 has a double chute which is expensive and difficult to utilize.
One of the problems with the previous systems that were encountered was that because of the necessity of having a heat resistant material that a separate chute was necessary. The separate chute resulted in added weight and cost and reduced the ease of use.
On of the most important considerations in an emergency situation is to evacuate the premise quickly and safely and the previous art does not provide this quick and easy escape system which also allows the rescue of the disabled, injured or elderly individuals.